2017 goals review

As much as I love year-in-review posts, I don’t love facing a big pile of unmet goals.  I was really, really optimistic about some of my goals in early 2017 — especially in light of my financial situation!!  So I took a peek at my goals post to see how I’d done against them, and it wasn’t soooo bad… so here we go.

I’m going with Alternative Colour Coding. Purple is success, Tealish is halfway, Sad Brown is a no-go.

Sit the trot – Ummm. I put this at the top of my list for a reason. And I kinda did it? I can sit the trot on a whole handful of horses.  Mine just… isn’t one of them. Back on the list for 2018 it goes.

Even out my hands – Giving myself this one. I have much more even hands, and a way better feel for when my hands are doing weird and crazy shit.

no wild and crazy hand shit here!

Even out my weight in the stirrups – Same thing here. After I borked my knee I got uneven again, but I was feeling really solid in both stirrups before that whole sprained MCL thing.

Get myself and Murray fit – We were on track to make this happen (for Murray), but then he got put on stall rest 3/4 of the way through the year so… yeah that didn’t happen. I am still a tubba lard in the fitness department.

Show rated – We showed rated at Twin (BN) and Camelot (BN). Not quite enough to justify the membership (came up $20 short on that), but if we hadn’t been sidelined we would probably have gone to November Fresno! Giving myself this one.

Go to at least two new venues – We went to Twin, which was new and awesome!, and then a few places that we’re really familiar with. Bummer.

Go to at least one dressage-only show – Peony and I did this in June! I wanted to do it more, but, you know. Real life. Finances. Etc.

Ride in two clinics – I rode with Hawley in February and Yves in December. Just squeezed it in, but we did it!

Develop the auto release – Err… nope. Worked on it. Got a lot better with my hands. Did not quite get there.

getting there…

Develop my seat – My seat got WAY better this year.

Murray gets his very own goals segment, because Murray.

My biggest goal this year with Murray is to stop taking short cuts.  Dudes. We did this. I have gone back to square one and reworked a ton of behaviors. Right now we’re in the middle of rehabbing his hideous feet, and they are getting better but it’s slow. As tempted as I am, I’m not going to shove shoes back on to mask whatever underlying issues may be there. (No, I swear I’m not going to. Even though I REALLY WANT TO RIGHT NOW.)

Tack up while tied reliably – RAISE THE ROOF FRIENDS AND FELLOWS. MY HORSE DOES THIS NOW. The last few weeks + clicker training were integral here. Pretty sure I could do it without the grain and clicker if I wanted to.

not my best riding, but a really cool fence

Full grooming in the cross ties – Murray stepped foot in the cross ties exactly one time this year. When we did his hocks. We’ll get at this in 2018.

Accept tacking up/handling/etc. by other people – Murray hasn’t been tacked up or handled by uh… almost anyone but me this year.

Behave while being ridden by other people – Ditto this one.

Confirm the first-level movements – We maybe wouldn’t be getting 7s on all our first level movements, but before stall rest hit, we could do all of them in a controlled fashion. The counter canter was, honestly, getting kinda baller. We’ll come back at this again in 2018, with all new tools!

Grow Murray’s confidence – Ditto this one! Murray is killing it on the confidence front right now. I even managed to borrow from him a few times this year!

Improve symmetry – Improve is nice and vague, so I’m going to give us this one too. Before the break, Murray was getting a lot better on his right side.

Get a saddle fitter out – I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. He’s worth it.

Put up my Murray wall – Almost finished! Just have to put up the photos. Ribbons, art, and shoes are all up!

yeah all these ribbons adorn my CHAMPIONZ wall nowBlog more – I blogged more in 2017 than I did in 2016, but not quite as much as 2015. I’d like to get to even more blogging this year!

More ride recaps – I didn’t count, but I’m pretty sure I did more of these.

Read more blogs – I worked hard on this in the beginning of the year and I found a whole bunch of new blogs to follow. I think I’m up to 113 blogs in my feed now!  I wasn’t so great at reading and commenting for large portions of this year, but I’ve had a great time catching up.

Comment more – I did this off and on!

frens!!

Meet more bloggers – Check, check, and check! Hung out with Peony, L, and Megan again, met Jen, hung with Alyssa, forced my friendship upon Kate, got to ride the Mule and the Mustangs, and promised and failed to hang out with Emma, Austen, and Niamh. And of course, Kathy.

 

I made this ribbon vector thinking I’d have a “competition goals” header, and then I didn’t.  So I threw it in for personal goals instead, because obviously my major personal goal is to continue winning at life.  (By the by, if anyone wants a swirly ribbon vector… you know where to find me).  My personal goals might better be represented by a stack of money but… ribbons are kinda like money?

Improve fitness and strength – Errr….

Run 5k – I… did not do this. I had a really cool spot to run around at my last house, and now I don’t have a cool place to run… so I guess it’ll be around the pastures a hundred times for me.

Conquer the pull-up – I DID ONE OF THESE. I was really good about working on this at the beginning of the year, and it fell off hard after I tweaked my neck. Let’s do two this year.

Get a full time job – I did this too! It was a contract job, it ended in December, and now I’m on the hunt again.

why can’t I look good in selfies with other humans? or non-super-awkward animals?

Publish two chapters – I published zero chapters. I need to get some motivation up to get this done. That shit needs to be out of my computer.

Properly pursue my side project(s) – I’m still working with the primate nonprofit, and while it took a pretty hard hit while I was a full time employee, I’m still at it. Chipping away at making the world a better place, one email at a time.

Contribute to my Roth IRA – Nope. Re-routed those savings to the wedding instead.

So when you add it all up, I got a 67.19% / 32.89 pen and THAT is a qualifying score my friends!  I plan to judge all of my life by dressage standards from now on!